“Who can we go to?”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Sunday, November 19, 2023

Psalm 123 (Forward, p. 21) CEV p. 635

Here God sounds like the best HR (Human Resources) department that anyone could ever devise. Certain people have felt themselves to be insulted and abused and so they have gone, not to some human agency or go-between, but to God. Indeed, as the psalmist said earlier, ‘servants (or employees) look to their master (their employer)’ for relief, but the psalmist has a better go-to person, namely God. He trusts God to look after the situation. Now, interestingly, he doesn’t tell God what He expects Him to do, or even lay out what he thinks the outcome should be. He leaves all of that to God. And so it is with us and God: we can go to Him with whatever bugs or concerns us, no matter what it is, and just lay it at His feet, trusting that He will take care of it for us as only He knows best.

Forward notes: “Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Too much of the scorn of the indolent rich and of the derision of the proud” (verses 4-5).

“I was buying olive oil in a Mediterranean market and noticed the Greek word for ‘olive’ was elia (elia). That’s a lot like the word for mercy (eleoV), I thought. After some research, I discovered that the latter word is derived from the former because prayer for healing in the ancient Mediterranean including anointing with olive oil. So, the original and primary meaning of mercy was healing.

“Mercy, as Portia tells Shylock in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, ‘blesses him that gives and him that takes.’ Without mercy, there cannot be spiritual or emotional healing. When we show mercy, we bestow healing on ourselves as well as on those whom we forgive.”

Moving Forward: “When have you received mercy and healing from others? Give thanks for this gift.”